Conceptualizes fragile listening and explores its implications on attention through psychoacoustics and acoustic ecology.
The article introduces the concept of “fragile listening” as a framework for describing ambient listening, understood as sensitive, easily disrupted, yet responsive to subtle changes in the sonic environment. Against the backdrop of the genealogy of background music, I propose a metatheoretical “epistemic game” that brings together psychoacoustics, acoustic ecology, and musicology. I argue that these fields do not fully account for threshold-based and diffuse listening practices. Drawing on the work LaBelle, Cobussen, and Hui, I conceptualize fragility as an epistemic virtue. An analysis of platforms and headphone technologies highlights the ethical stakes of cultivating a “vulnerable ear” in the face of algorithmic management of mood and attention. keywords:
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Piotr Kędziora (2026) studied this question.
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